Colin Mills
@oxsoc.bsky.social
Christminster sociologist. Currently living the good life on the bequest of a motor industry magnate and hanging out in an ex night club.
Great interview with my former colleague Tom Snijders
🎙️ New episode of Knitting Networks!
Tom A. B. Snijders, emeritus at Oxford & Groningen, and a key figure in statistical models for networks. A journey from math to sociology, theory to method.
🎧 Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/2mrB...
@aespinosarada.bsky.social @franciscaortizruiz.bsky.social
Tom A. B. Snijders, emeritus at Oxford & Groningen, and a key figure in statistical models for networks. A journey from math to sociology, theory to method.
🎧 Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/2mrB...
@aespinosarada.bsky.social @franciscaortizruiz.bsky.social
84.Tom A.B. Snijders
open.spotify.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Great interview with my former colleague Tom Snijders
Reposted by Colin Mills
Michael Biggs becomes Professor of Sociology
1 September 2025
www.sociology.ox.ac.uk
September 3, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Colin Mills
Some cool PhD studentships open at Stockholm Sociology:
AI/future of work (quant)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Organized labor and care leave (quant/mixed)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Violence and sexual health in Mexico (quant/qual)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
AI/future of work (quant)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Organized labor and care leave (quant/mixed)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Violence and sexual health in Mexico (quant/qual)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
September 2, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Some cool PhD studentships open at Stockholm Sociology:
AI/future of work (quant)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Organized labor and care leave (quant/mixed)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Violence and sexual health in Mexico (quant/qual)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
AI/future of work (quant)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Organized labor and care leave (quant/mixed)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Violence and sexual health in Mexico (quant/qual)
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Reposted by Colin Mills
📢 Call for Papers – Hong Kong Sociological Association Annual Conference 6th December 2025. Abstract submissions are open until 19 September. I’m honoured to be giving a keynote at the conference and look forward to engaging with fellow scholars.
August 14, 2025 at 11:30 PM
📢 Call for Papers – Hong Kong Sociological Association Annual Conference 6th December 2025. Abstract submissions are open until 19 September. I’m honoured to be giving a keynote at the conference and look forward to engaging with fellow scholars.
Reposted by Colin Mills
Note, too, the logical inconsistency: the Trump administration wants Brown to collect information (on skin color) that it wasn't collecting before, based on gvt's evidence-free claim that Brown has been discriminating against students on the basis of skin color information that it didn't have.
9/9
9/9
July 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Note, too, the logical inconsistency: the Trump administration wants Brown to collect information (on skin color) that it wasn't collecting before, based on gvt's evidence-free claim that Brown has been discriminating against students on the basis of skin color information that it didn't have.
9/9
9/9
Reposted by Colin Mills
Also, neither the Common App nor internal university systems are set up to collect information on skin color.
Requiring universities to report data by skin color is effectively a massive, unfunded mandate to collect what will end up being low-quality data on a difficult-to-measure construct.
8/9
Requiring universities to report data by skin color is effectively a massive, unfunded mandate to collect what will end up being low-quality data on a difficult-to-measure construct.
8/9
July 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Also, neither the Common App nor internal university systems are set up to collect information on skin color.
Requiring universities to report data by skin color is effectively a massive, unfunded mandate to collect what will end up being low-quality data on a difficult-to-measure construct.
8/9
Requiring universities to report data by skin color is effectively a massive, unfunded mandate to collect what will end up being low-quality data on a difficult-to-measure construct.
8/9
Do I think professional organisations should expel or boycott constituent associations from states whose governments do or advocate bad things? No, not unless the association is state controlled or acts as an arm of the state. I said that in 1989 about the SASA & say it today about the ISS.
July 25, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Do I think professional organisations should expel or boycott constituent associations from states whose governments do or advocate bad things? No, not unless the association is state controlled or acts as an arm of the state. I said that in 1989 about the SASA & say it today about the ISS.
Reposted by Colin Mills
Excellent debunking of Matt Goodwin and GB News pretence that a British Army veteran was forced out of army housing because of the Afghan info cock-up
Just to be completely clear - this British Army Vet was NOT forced out of military housing to accommodate Afghans - who, by the way, put their own lives at risk to support and protect British soldiers.
Just ever more rage-baiting by Matt!
🧵1/14
Just ever more rage-baiting by Matt!
🧵1/14
July 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Excellent debunking of Matt Goodwin and GB News pretence that a British Army veteran was forced out of army housing because of the Afghan info cock-up
Reposted by Colin Mills
Paid research assistant opportunity with the British Election Study for UK-based graduate students. Help us validate turnout in our surveys against Electoral Commission records
July 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Paid research assistant opportunity with the British Election Study for UK-based graduate students. Help us validate turnout in our surveys against Electoral Commission records
It's nice to be cited. Less so when the citation gets what you wrote back to front. Like the guys fussing about the interpretation of a logit model who tell us they are interested in an unobserved continuous outcome, which turns out to be,...whether or not an infant is alive or dead.
July 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
It's nice to be cited. Less so when the citation gets what you wrote back to front. Like the guys fussing about the interpretation of a logit model who tell us they are interested in an unobserved continuous outcome, which turns out to be,...whether or not an infant is alive or dead.
I'm in two minds...
"Dummy variable" was first used as a noun in math and statistics apparently in the 1930s. Today it offended someone at a talk. Should we scrap this term?
July 10, 2025 at 7:47 AM
I'm in two minds...
Reposted by Colin Mills
The real power of administrative register data: Each person-year has an anonymized address ID, which lets me measure how much siblings actually lived together growing up. Just did that—and linked it to survey data on 15,000 siblings!
#sociology @erc.europa.eu
#sociology @erc.europa.eu
July 10, 2025 at 6:08 AM
The real power of administrative register data: Each person-year has an anonymized address ID, which lets me measure how much siblings actually lived together growing up. Just did that—and linked it to survey data on 15,000 siblings!
#sociology @erc.europa.eu
#sociology @erc.europa.eu
Reposted by Colin Mills
MIT philosopher Alex Byrne responds with restraint and reason to colleagues' hamfisted condemnation: "Encouraging individuals on social media to join a public condemnation of a colleague is inimical to the mission of the university."
web.mit.edu/abyrne/www/D...
web.mit.edu/abyrne/www/D...
web.mit.edu
July 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
MIT philosopher Alex Byrne responds with restraint and reason to colleagues' hamfisted condemnation: "Encouraging individuals on social media to join a public condemnation of a colleague is inimical to the mission of the university."
web.mit.edu/abyrne/www/D...
web.mit.edu/abyrne/www/D...
Reposted by Colin Mills
The Telegraph obit for Lord Lipsey is excellent and contains this corker
www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...
www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...
July 3, 2025 at 5:24 PM
The Telegraph obit for Lord Lipsey is excellent and contains this corker
www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...
www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2...
Reposted by Colin Mills
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
June 19, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.
Reposted by Colin Mills
Thank you, Herman. It was fun to put it together and I find the contributions impressive. The last few will be coming online shortly and then the full special issue will be out soon. Complete line-up below, quick summaries here: doi.org/10.1177/0049...
July 3, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Thank you, Herman. It was fun to put it together and I find the contributions impressive. The last few will be coming online shortly and then the full special issue will be out soon. Complete line-up below, quick summaries here: doi.org/10.1177/0049...
Reposted by Colin Mills
My colleague Cristobal Young and co-author Erin Cumberworth just released their book on multiverse analysis, a set of tools that help resolve the "garden of forking paths" and "file-drawer" problems and, in the process, improve quantitative social & behavioral science.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
April 19, 2025 at 9:52 PM
My colleague Cristobal Young and co-author Erin Cumberworth just released their book on multiverse analysis, a set of tools that help resolve the "garden of forking paths" and "file-drawer" problems and, in the process, improve quantitative social & behavioral science.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
Reposted by Colin Mills
Jolyon Maugham KC has blocked me, but posted that the guardian article about Melanie Field shows UKSC in FWS v Scottish ministers is constitutionally wrong. For a KC to suggest something so legally illiterate in statutory interpretation is bizarre. My explanation why medium.com/@scott-wortl...
April 19, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Jolyon Maugham KC has blocked me, but posted that the guardian article about Melanie Field shows UKSC in FWS v Scottish ministers is constitutionally wrong. For a KC to suggest something so legally illiterate in statutory interpretation is bizarre. My explanation why medium.com/@scott-wortl...
Reposted by Colin Mills
I must admit to finding the first line of the second paragraph an odd criticism. The UK SC is an apex appellate Court. It does not hear evidence, it hears legal argument.
If Amnesty or the Scottish government chose not to instruct a trans barrister, is that not on them, rather than the UKSC?
If Amnesty or the Scottish government chose not to instruct a trans barrister, is that not on them, rather than the UKSC?
The Supreme Court sided with FWS.
But it didn’t hear from a single trans person.
This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and erases trans women from protections. It puts trans rights back 20 years.
We won't stop fighting for trans rights 🏳️⚧️
But it didn’t hear from a single trans person.
This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and erases trans women from protections. It puts trans rights back 20 years.
We won't stop fighting for trans rights 🏳️⚧️
April 16, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I must admit to finding the first line of the second paragraph an odd criticism. The UK SC is an apex appellate Court. It does not hear evidence, it hears legal argument.
If Amnesty or the Scottish government chose not to instruct a trans barrister, is that not on them, rather than the UKSC?
If Amnesty or the Scottish government chose not to instruct a trans barrister, is that not on them, rather than the UKSC?
Reposted by Colin Mills
You know you're Canadian when you've been kicked out of at least one bar for standing on the chair and leading the crowd in a great anthem about stealing yankee gold.
With deep apologies to that nice little club in Jasper.
Or was it Halifax?
Singing with #elbowsup
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Cv...
With deep apologies to that nice little club in Jasper.
Or was it Halifax?
Singing with #elbowsup
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0Cv...
Stan Rogers sings "Barrett's Privateers" in One Warm Line documentary
YouTube video by Kensington TV
www.youtube.com
March 31, 2025 at 12:04 AM
This is very good.
Ah yes, the eternal question. Always a good excuse to bump this *epic* CV answer by @noahgreifer.bsky.social
stats.stackexchange.com/questions/54...
stats.stackexchange.com/questions/54...
March 27, 2025 at 9:31 AM
This is very good.
Reposted by Colin Mills
💼 🇪🇺 Our Associate Professors @patmcgovern.bsky.social and Eiko Thielemann have co-authored a new publication with former @lsepublicpolicy.bsky.social Fellow @omarhgallego.bsky.social discussing #immigration and #labourmarket access.
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10....
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10....
The return of the state: how European governments regulate labour market competition from migrant workers - Comparative Migration Studies
What is the role of the market economy and of the European Union in shaping policies that limit migrants’ access to the labour market? While much of the existing research has examined the development ...
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com
March 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
💼 🇪🇺 Our Associate Professors @patmcgovern.bsky.social and Eiko Thielemann have co-authored a new publication with former @lsepublicpolicy.bsky.social Fellow @omarhgallego.bsky.social discussing #immigration and #labourmarket access.
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10....
comparativemigrationstudies.springeropen.com/articles/10....
Reposted by Colin Mills
New in European Sociological Review: “Does inequality undermine life satisfaction? Effective identification of country-level controls for a longitudinal investigation”.
Economic inequality lowers LS among lower earners – but it *raises* LS among higher earners.
academic.oup.com/esr/advance-...
Economic inequality lowers LS among lower earners – but it *raises* LS among higher earners.
academic.oup.com/esr/advance-...
March 27, 2025 at 8:33 AM
New in European Sociological Review: “Does inequality undermine life satisfaction? Effective identification of country-level controls for a longitudinal investigation”.
Economic inequality lowers LS among lower earners – but it *raises* LS among higher earners.
academic.oup.com/esr/advance-...
Economic inequality lowers LS among lower earners – but it *raises* LS among higher earners.
academic.oup.com/esr/advance-...
Reposted by Colin Mills
If you want to hear more about our recent @nuffieldfoundation.org funded research on inequalities in access to professional occupations, join us at LSE on Thurs where I will present our work - joint with @clairetyler.bsky.social and Catherine Dilnot
📣 @lindseymacmillan.bsky.social will explore ‘Inequalities in Applications and Offers to Graduate Recruitment Programmes‘ in our next Department seminar.
📆 Thursday 27 March, 1.00pm – 2.30pm
➡️ buff.ly/RawGEJC
📆 Thursday 27 March, 1.00pm – 2.30pm
➡️ buff.ly/RawGEJC
March 25, 2025 at 9:34 AM
If you want to hear more about our recent @nuffieldfoundation.org funded research on inequalities in access to professional occupations, join us at LSE on Thurs where I will present our work - joint with @clairetyler.bsky.social and Catherine Dilnot